For a lot of people who played video games in the 1980s and 90s, Rare is a pretty big name for them. These are the people who developed Battletoads, the Banjo-Kazooie franchise, and Jet Force Gemini. Since being acquired by Microsoft in 2002, the studio has had it rough, to say the least. They put out Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts for the Xbox 360 in 2008, but since then, they’ve basically been a Kinect machine. Rare fans aren’t too happy with this, and having been begging for the developer to return to what made them so great in the first place.
If this rumor is true, gamers will be able to play those class Rare games on their Xbox One. Gamestop has an entry listed for something under the name of RareReplay, with Kotaku reporting 30 titles that include the three games mentioned above, along with the 360 titles Kameo: Elements of Power and Perfect Dark. Sadly, no Donkey Kong or Goldeneye, since they’re both owned respectively by Nintendo and Activision. The inclusion of titles like Battletoads and Banjo-Kazooie could lead to those titles coming to the Xbox One in the future. Rare has apparently been working on something original, but Phil Spencer has also sort of hinted before the possibility of a new Battletoads. Guess we’ll find out in just a few hours, but hopefully it won’t be like a gritty shooter starring Troy Baker.